


ČW 39

by gladdecease



Category: Nodame Cantabile
Genre: Denial of Feelings, Developing Relationship, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-09
Updated: 2013-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-28 16:38:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gladdecease/pseuds/gladdecease
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This isn't love.  Whatever this is, he's sure of that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	ČW 39

**Author's Note:**

> Discovered most of this in a locked post four years back on my lj. Figured I should tidy it up and post it for real. The title is a reference to [a certain orchestral work](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romeo_and_Juliet_%28Tchaikovsky%29) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. When the text refers to a metaphorical crescendo, this piece's most famous bars are the musical equivalent I had in mind.

Whatever this is, it's not love. He's sure of that.

Some kind of affection, yes. Chiaki Shinichi loves music, loves the music Nodame draws out of the piano. He can't help but be fond of her, of her piano playing.

At the same time, she's an impossible annoyance. Nodame can't clean, can't cook, can't seem to take care of herself at all. She's deluded herself into thinking she's his _wife_ , and takes every opportune moment to embarrass him with that fact. He knows of far too many people who have the wrong idea about their relationship, and it constantly irritates him.

It occasionally occurs to him that it can't be just her actions that give people the wrong idea - stalkers sometimes become deluded into imagining a relationship with their obsession, but people never believe _them_. And true, he cooks for her, cleans her apartment, and never quite tries to really chase her away for good. So it might look like a relationship, to someone on the outside. Well, to anyone who's not him, it seems.

But the thing is, if he chases her away, or lets her starve or rot to death in that wasteland of an apartment, he won't hear her music again. He's not sure he could stand that.

So, definitely not love. A shared fondness for music, for the piano. Respect for a player with great talent. A desire to see her improve, and be a part of that growth. To be her _deai_ , as Satsuma put it.

It's all this - not love - that takes him from Tokyo to Kyushu (by train, not plane; he's not quite ready for a solo flight yet), paying a 16,000 yen taxicab to get to Okawa. She's left the school, possibly left piano. No more of Nodame's music? No, he can't let that happen.

Then, just as he's approaching Okawa proper, she calls him. Tells him what he already knows, that she's back in her hometown. He's ready to start on his speech, demand that she return to the piano, to Tokyo, and then come with him to Europe, when he sees her outside the window. They're going in opposite directions, him toward the city, her away from it, and for a moment they're close enough that he can see the contents of her grocery bag (nigi, of all things).

The shock, he expects. The lack of tension in his shoulders, the tug at the base of his stomach, he doesn't.

He gets out of the taxi and follows her, listening as she ruins his argument. She's decided for herself to travel abroad, whether it's by his side or not. She has the means to, will be going to France.

It had been Paris or Prague for him, and he'd chosen Prague. He feels uneasy.

That tug in his stomach increases as she starts to list off her goals. To perform together, he the conductor, her the pianist. In Philadelphia, New York. To become a golden pair, constantly requested to perform together. The tug becomes a twist, a horrible knot in his stomach, though counterintuitively he feels more and more relieved. He finds himself smiling, and starts running.

He catches up to her and sweeps her into a hug before he realizes what he's doing. To hear her voice promising those things was incredible. To be near her again is beyond description.

He can't put a name to this feeling, but he knows now it's not just respect. Not just affection. It swells up inside him like a crescendo, and makes room by pushing out the desperate words he'd barely had the courage for just a week ago.

_Come to Europe with me. Refuse me twice, and I'll never forgive you._

She doesn't give a proper answer, but he can make a guess based on the happiness that rolls off her. It joins his own in a thrilling duet that makes him want to do countless foolish things, all in the name of... whatever this is.

And then her father spots them, and the moment falls apart. But for that brief span of time he _knew_ , without a doubt, the two of them were going to take on the world. They're - _she's_ \- going to be amazing.

He can hardly wait to make it happen.


End file.
